Swanky new digs for Seattle dining instituion

Published 12:41 pm, Tuesday, March 13, 2018

Seattle's 13 Coins restaurant has been something of an institution in late night and early morning dining and drinking.

The recently closed Boren Avenue restaurant, first opened in 1967, held all the charm and mystique of a place where mobsters might congregate (and probably did). With its leather-clad, high-backed booths, and swivel stools facing the line cooks, it hearkened to the era of "Mad Men."

Dim lighting, strong drink and a 24-hour kitchen made it an obvious late-night hangout. And its location, one door down from the current Seattle Times building and kitty-corner from the old Times building, also made it an obvious choice for reporters coming off a shift (and probably going on a shift in the old days).

Its new restaurant in Pioneer Square brought much of the old aesthetic along. The booths, the swivel chairs and the dim, classy atmosphere remain intact. It's new and fresh, however. When walking down to the basement level, what they call the "Lower Quarters," a scent of fresh leather hits the nose and the lights from flat-screen TVs flash.

Like Seattle itself, 13 Coins is still there, and the nuts and bolts hit your heart strings, but it's newer, flashier, and without the memories. With any luck, those fresh leather captain's chairs will wear in just as nicely as they did in South Lake Union.